LOS ANGELES — One team will have a leg up on the competition in the upcoming season of "The Amazing Race."

Two of the Harlem Globetrotters are among the 12 teams starring in the 15th edition of the CBS reality show, which premieres Sept. 27. Nathaniel "The Big Easy" Lofton, 28, from New Orleans, and Herbert "Flight Time" Lang, 32, from Brinkley, Ark., believe their experience will help them dominate this season's course, which spans eight countries in 21 days.

"I've been to about 65 countries around the world," said Lang. "I definitely think that gives us a little bit of an advantage when we're traveling to different countries, as far as knowing how to interact with different cultures, managing our money and communicating with taxi drivers and whoever else we need to help us get from Point A to Point B."

Justin Kanew, 30, and Zev Glassenberg, 26, best friends from Los Angeles who met while working as camp counselors at Camp Greylock in Becket, Mass., are more excited about the journey than the possibility of winning the show's $1 million grand prize. Glassenberg has Asperger's syndrome, a milder form of autism.

"I don't think the fact that I have Asperger's will hinder me," Glassenberg said. "I do tend to think outside of the box, so it might help us. It'll be weird going into these social situations around the world. I might not take it all in right away, but I know I'm racing, so I'll probably get past it really fast."

Other teams include Maria Ho, 26, and Tiffany Michelle, 25, who are professional poker players.

"It's obviously different from competition at the poker table," said Ho, who came in 11th place at this year's World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. "It's outdoorsy. This is physical and mental, but we will definitely be applying whatever skills we have as gamers to this competition and push ourselves in different ways that we're not used to doing."

Among the teams who are romantically linked: a feisty engaged couple from Boston; grade-school sweethearts from San Diego; a dating couple from San Francisco who met online; married yoga instructors from Encino, Calif.; dating aspiring country singers; and a former Miss America and her husband.

"They are now suddenly putting their relationship under a microscope," said host Phil Keoghan. "I personally wouldn't want to do that, but teams do, and audiences love to watch it, and there are a number of teams on this season that are coming to the race to test their relationship, and it sounds like some of them might get quite testy in the process."

For the first time, one team will be booted at the start of the trek, and racers will have to tackle the Switchback, a new twist that sends teams back to one of the series' most challenging "roadblocks." Executive producer Bertram van Munster said the racers will set off from the Los Angeles River, then first head to Tokyo to complete several zany tasks.

"Have you ever seen Japanese tourists following a tour guide with a little flag?" said van Munster. "Well, our contestants are going to be the tour leaders. Each team is going to have to run a group of 20 tourists through the center of Tokyo as fast as they can. Whoever brings their entire tour group to the Pit Stop first will be the number one team."

For the first time, one team will be booted at the start of the trek, and racers will have to tackle the Switchback, a new twist that sends teams back to one of the series' most challenging "roadblocks." Executive producer Bertram van Munster said the racers will set off from the Los Angeles River, then first head to Tokyo to complete several zany tasks.

For the first time, one team will be booted at the start of the trek, and racers will have to tackle the Switchback, a new twist that sends teams back to one of the series' most challenging "roadblocks." Executive producer Bertram van Munster said the racers will set off from the Los Angeles River, then first head to Tokyo to complete several zany tasks.

For the first time, one team will be booted at the start of the trek, and racers will have to tackle the Switchback, a new twist that sends teams back to one of the series' most challenging "roadblocks." Executive producer Bertram van Munster said the racers will set off from the Los Angeles River, then first head to Tokyo to complete several zany tasks.

Yer. But Roadblock twist is a good surprise!

I wonder why they quotation marked "roadblock" though. And wouldn't it be too much, and considering some tasks from past seasons are similar to one another?

Still, can't wait! I've never heard of a Switchback in TAR games/fanfics!

For the first time, one team will be booted at the start of the trek, and racers will have to tackle the Switchback, a new twist that sends teams back to one of the series' most challenging "roadblocks." Executive producer Bertram van Munster said the racers will set off from the Los Angeles River, then first head to Tokyo to complete several zany tasks.

Yer. But Roadblock twist is a good surprise!

I wonder why they quotation marked "roadblock" though. And wouldn't it be too much, and considering some tasks from past seasons are similar to one another?

Still, can't wait! I've never heard of a Switchback in TAR games/fanfics!

Am I the only one on this forum that hopes there WASN'T a new twist? It's okay for me fanfics/games, but NOT the real seasons.

For the first time, one team will be booted at the start of the trek, and racers will have to tackle the Switchback, a new twist that sends teams back to one of the series' most challenging "roadblocks." Executive producer Bertram van Munster said the racers will set off from the Los Angeles River, then first head to Tokyo to complete several zany tasks.

Yer. But Roadblock twist is a good surprise!

I wonder why they quotation marked "roadblock" though. And wouldn't it be too much, and considering some tasks from past seasons are similar to one another?

Still, can't wait! I've never heard of a Switchback in TAR games/fanfics!

Am I the only one on this forum that hopes there WASN'T a new twist? It's okay for me fanfics/games, but NOT the real seasons.

You're not the only one. I hate the new twist, but not the Switchback. I thought it's exciting.

For the first time, one team will be booted at the start of the trek, and racers will have to tackle the Switchback, a new twist that sends teams back to one of the series' most challenging "roadblocks." Executive producer Bertram van Munster said the racers will set off from the Los Angeles River, then first head to Tokyo to complete several zany tasks.

Yer. But Roadblock twist is a good surprise!

I wonder why they quotation marked "roadblock" though. And wouldn't it be too much, and considering some tasks from past seasons are similar to one another?

Still, can't wait! I've never heard of a Switchback in TAR games/fanfics!

Am I the only one on this forum that hopes there WASN'T a new twist? It's okay for me fanfics/games, but NOT the real seasons.

You're not the only one. I hate the new twist, but not the Switchback. I thought it's exciting.

I hate both. I actually hate the U-Turn/Yield/Intersection/various NEL penalties, even if they proved to be entertaining/useful. I use them in games simply for the drama.

"Have you ever seen Japanese tourists following a tour guide with a little flag?" said van Munster. "Well, our contestants are going to be the tour leaders. Each team is going to have to run a group of 20 tourists through the center of Tokyo as fast as they can. Whoever brings their entire tour group to the Pit Stop first will be the number one team."

I just love the new twists that TAR throws onto the show and don't complain much. It used to be just FF every legs, but now with 2 Switchbacks, 2 U-TURNs, 2 SpeedBumps and 2 Fast Forwards (maybe??), it ensures that almost every other leg, we have something to watch out for on the show and not just normal Detours and Roadblocks teams have to perform. I actually thought TAR still managed to gain on ratings because of all these new twists which played out to be well, as compared to in Survivor where they probably ran out of twist to put on the show.

Now i just can't imagine or think of any twist the producers can put onto the show. It seems like a complete route or race with everything so evenly planned out.

Can't wait for TAR 15.

Anyway, is it just me.. or do i find this season team names extremely hard to remember and spell? :X

Contestants will travel one of the fastest courses ever assembled on the Race - spanning eight countries in just 21 days. Season 15 also features the quickest elimination in the history of the series, sending one Team home before they leave the starting line. Teams fortunate enough to avoid the surprise elimination and compete for the $ 1 million prize will face the "Switchback," which sends Teams back to the site of one of the series' most infamous Roadblocks, as well as a surprise appearance by one of America's most beloved entertainers, a visit to the world's tallest building and a spicy twist on a Japanese game show.

"This season we wanted to keep the Racers and our fans on their toes and make sure no one gets too comfortable," stated Bertram van Munster, Executive Producer and Co-Creator of THE AMAZING RACE. "We're adding some new surprise elements including our quickest elimination ever as well as revisiting one of the most challenging Roadblocks our Teams have ever encountered during our past 15 seasons."

Teams fortunate enough to avoid the surprise elimination and compete for the $ 1 million prize will face the "Switchback," which sends Teams back to the site of one of the series' most infamous Roadblocks, as well as a surprise appearance by one of America's most beloved entertainers, a visit to the world's tallest building and a spicy twist on a Japanese game show.

The teams are gpong back to the location of an actual past-season roadblock, and I believe the twist is that this season's teams are doing the exact same roadblock at that task.

That pretty much points to a handful of places given what we know about this season's Race course.

At the moment, my bet is on the season 3 roadblock in Ho Chi Mihn City, which lead to the final elimination of Derek and Drew Riker, but that doesn't rule out other possibilities, such as the roadblock that had teams driving a course around downtown Tokyo, or the season 4 roadblock in the Netherlands; some of these require researchto plot the actual roadblocks in the season 15 countries to see which tasks were near where teams are known to have traveled.